Home  Book Review  Comment  Concerns  Concordance  Heritage  News  People  Page 11
 
 
 

They number 10,000, some say 12,000, houses but these old more than a century old houses are enough to qualify  Georgetown as a historic enclave nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage List. 

The preservation of the heritage houses came about by mere chance.  The Rent Control Ordinance of 1948 was enacted by the British colonial authorities to freeze the rents of houses built before 1948. The interpretation of the Ordinance and its amendments was a boon to the legal profession. Reported cases crowd the law reports. But the Ordinance also proved to be an unexpected obstacle to developers. The statutory requirements to be satisfied before a landlord could retrieve his house tenant free were so complicated that development in the old city virtually stopped. Instead building was done at the expense of rambutan estates in Green Lane, and further afield in Brown estate, towards Ayer Itam and northwards along Tanjong Bungah. 

In 1997 the Act was repealed but it only came into force at the end of 1999.  Landlords were now free to raise rents to economic i.e. present day levels or they could sell after serving notices to quit

Developers have not been slow to take advantage. The Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) reports that six heritage shop houses along Beach Street will be replaced by a commercial block. These houses are located between the ancient Boon San Tong Khoo Kongsi and the Eng Chuan Tong Tan Kongsi and  are a part of the Goh Tai Seng Kongsi area within the historic enclave of George Town   The buildings are a more than 100 years old and qualify as heritage buildings. 

While various organisations lament the impending death of the heritage city someone has yet to come up with a solution. The state government's policy is one of laissez faire. But the importance  of George Town's history surely merits serious study, which would suggest the setting up of  a committee to investigate how the old city and how much of it is to be preserved, and more importantly,  who will finance the preservation and maintenance of history. We do not need "foreign experts" to tell us about these matters, but something must be done not only for the sake of future generations but for the world. As Penang's own minister for tourism says it is the  "old world charms and pre-war buildings mansions and streetscapes" that will attract the tourists

Obviously enormous sums of money will be involved and that is where the United Nations comes in. We know that it offered to help some years ago though the offer was rejected for reasons which have not been revealed. 

While the present discussion is about the "historic enclave" we must not lose sight of buildings outside the area. Already we have lost the Lin Radio building on Burmah Road. the Hotel Metropole on Northam Road and the old PWD buildings alongside the E & O and the old Mercantile Bank residence on Macalister Road. Our interest should  include buildings that are of educational value and therefore historic. Such buildings as the European teachers bungalows at Francis Light School that  underlined the colonial discrimination are invaluable aids to education but in the craze for development not a single one was spared the builder's bulldozer. 
 

Social Crisis

While some tenants have taken advantage of the Rent Control Act to to sublet rooms at profitable rents without passing a share of their illegal gains to landlords and deserve no pity, there are genuine tenants who will be deprived of protection that has kept the roofs over their heads for many years. Such bodies as SOS - SaveOurSelves - organised by the organic farming enthusiast Ong have sprung up to make representations on their behalf

Who are the "really needy"? -  a term used by the chief minister of Penang. The state government it is said will screen and identify tenants in need of help and then reveal its plans. Data gathered from PHT, Consumers Association and SOS and from assemblymen shows that about 1000 persons need help.  We do not know if they are "tenants at large", a term which  Dr Khoo Book Teik of Universiti Sains, Penang uses to include   coffee shop operators, small time merchants and craftsmen. The treatment of this group should determine whether George Town was a "gutted inner city or a vibrant George Town" Dr Khoo thinks that we are faced with a major social crisis. 

PHT thinks that the repeal of the Act has triggered a housing and heritage crisis requiring an "integrated solution." Dr Toh Kin Woon, a member of the state government, however, has a more practical solution: the "hard core poor" he thinks should be relocated at 900 units of flats at Rifle Range and River Road

[Ed. note: Council has proposed the gazetting of selected buildings and areas as historical monuments and sites under the Antiquities Act 1976. It also proposes that George Town be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List]
 

Below we reproduce PHT's Note on the Historic Enclave
 

George Town, the capital of Penang Island, is everything a thriving city should be: a historic environment of residences, shops, religious buildings and civic spaces; varied ethnic groups occupying distinctive neighbourhoods; and overlapping streetscapes with vibrant street life. The former British trading post, established in 1786, maintains its original plan and waterfront context. More than 100 churches, mosques, temples, shrines, and lodges provide the focal points for diverse religious celebrations. A few of George Town's first generation brick buildings (1790û1830) survive in the old historic core, while the majority of its 10,000 heritage buildings span the mid nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries. But like most historic urban centres, George Town faces severe development pressures--new, unsympathetic intrusions, conversion of residences into offices, overwhelming traffic, and developers eager to demolish vernacular treasures. The imminent repeal of rent control is accelerating the pace at which tenants are displaced and buildings insensitively renovated or demolished. Landlords and municipal authorities need to be convinced that conservation is a form of sustainable development that can foster cultural tourism while reinforcing the highly valued social fabric of a local community.

[For more from the Penang Heritage Trust click - www.pht.org.my